[1] In 1883, aged 17, Rowlandson joined the staff of the NSW Bookstall Company, and was employed as a tram ticket seller at the office at the corner of King and Elizabeth streets.

When the proprietor Henry Lloyd died in 1897, Rowlandson bought the business from the widow and conceived the idea of selling Australian books at one shilling each, creating the Bookstall series.

[3] The unprecedented fee paid to Rudd meant that about twenty thousand copies needed to be sold before a profit could be made.

He published works by Arthur Adams, John Barry, Louis Becke, Randolph Bedford, Edwin Brady, George Cockerill, Edward Dyson, Beatrice Grimshaw, Sumner Locke, Vance Palmer, Ambrose Pratt, Thomas Spencer and Alfred Stephens among others.

[1] In April 1922 Rowlandson, accompanied by his wife and three children, left Sydney on a voyage to North America for the sake of his health.